


Never Alone

by phantombride



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Gen, Scorpia working on her feelings, Scorpia x the Black Garnet, do you love Scorpia? read this if you do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-07 14:14:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21218096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantombride/pseuds/phantombride
Summary: It’s been three weeks since Entrapta was sent to Beast Island. A lot of things have happened in that time, and Scorpia keeps a running list:-I have adopted Emily. Entrapta didn’t ask but she seemed so lonely once she was gone.-Catra has changed. She doesn’t speak to me anymore.-Actually, nobody speaks to me anymore. not after I spoke up for Entrapta and disobeyed Catra. Good thing I adopted Emily.-I think Hordak and Catra might be ruling the Horde together? It’s hard to tell when no one talks to you.-They took away my Force Captain badge.





	Never Alone

It’s been three weeks since Entrapta was sent to Beast Island. A lot of things have happened in that time, and Scorpia keeps a running list:

  * I have adopted Emily. Entrapta didn’t ask but she seemed so lonely once she was gone.
  * Catra has changed. She doesn’t speak to me anymore. 
  * Actually, nobody speaks to me anymore. not after I spoke up for Entrapta and disobeyed Catra. Good thing I adopted Emily.
  * I think Hordak and Catra might be ruling the Horde together? It’s hard to tell when no one talks to you. 
  * They took away my Force Captain badge.

Every night since Catra opened the portal, when Scorpia closes her eyes, a running loop plays.  _ The baton in her face. Ruling together in the Crimson Waste. Do you want to be next? Catra’s blushing face as she said they could be happy.  _ Over and over. Not that she’d tell anyone, but she was starting to feel really lonely. Emily was a good listener, but she could rarely hold a conversation.

This time, awake in bed, Scorpia remembers something else. 

_ It’s the night before Entrapta is supposed to be sent away. Hordak believes she betrayed The Horde, and Catra wants her out of the way. They’re holding her in the same cell they held Shadow Weaver. Scorpia knows she can’t break her out. Her claws are too big. She just wants to talk, to say goodbye to her friend. When Scorpia approaches the cell, Entrapta’s back is turned. _

_ “Entrapta?” Her voice is quiet. _

_ She turns, a grin erupting on her face. Her hair scoots her to the front of the cell. “Scorpia! What are you doing here?” _

_ “I wanted to see you. Before. You know. Why do you look so happy?” _

_ Entrapta’s wide smile does not falter. “Almost nothing is known about Beast Island. Imagine what I’ll find there! I’ve heard rumors of First Ones tech! There’s no record of the environment, or the native species, or the flora -“ _

_ “Yeah, because it’s super dangerous. Why don’t you just break out? I know you could if you wanted. Get out of here, go back to your castle. I mean...you ARE a Princess. You could even join the rebellion.” _

_ “It’s okay, Scorpia. I want to go. There’s so much to discover. I just have this feeling something big is there. Something incredible. Something only I can figure out.” _

_ “Well, if there’s anyone resourceful enough to take care of themselves, it’s you.” Scorpia offers her a small smile. Entrapta beams. _

_ “You know, you’re a Princess too, Scorpia,” Entrapta says.  _

_ Scorpia brings a claw to the back of her neck and drops her gaze. “I guess, technically, I am - but, I mean, I’m not. I can’t even do magic.” She laughs a little.  _

_ Entrapta’s eyes go wide. “But you are. And you could. I know where he’s keeping the Black Garnet. You could reforge your connection. You could gain access to your magic.” _

_ “Oh man, I don’t know, Entrapta,” Scorpia lets out a low whistle. “Catra wouldn’t like that. And wouldn’t I need Hordak’s permission? I don’t know if I’d be any good at magic, anyway. I mean, I made it this far without it, right?” _

_ Entrapta pulls a tracker pad out from within her hair. Scorpia almost asks her how she still has it, but thinks better of the question. Magic hair, obviously. Entrapta furiously taps for a few moments, then holds it up for Scorpia to see. _

_ “Listen,” Entrapta says, pointing. “Hordak keeps the Black Garnet here. You need an access code, but I upgraded the security systems, so I know how to override it. All you need to do is enter this code.” _

_ The screen changes, and the code flashes bright. Scorpia tries not to look. She really does. After a few moments, the pad shows the map again.  _

_ “Do it while Catra’s gone. She’d try to stop you. It’d be easy for you. Think of what you could do! You could meet me on Beast Island. You could go back to the Crimson Waste. You could join the Rebellion if you wanted. You could do anything.” Entrapta looks so earnest that Scorpia smiles for real, for the first time since Catra opened the portal. _

_ “I don’t know,” Scorpia says finally, sighing. “I can’t do any of that. I’d be betraying the Horde. I’d be abandoning my wildcat.” _

_ For a second, Entrapta’s smile falls. She looks sad, but Scorpia can’t figure out why. “When’s the last time Catra talked to you?” _

_ “Oh. Um. When she asked if I wanted to be next. After she knocked you out. But it’s fine, really - she’s just in a bad place right now. She needs me. She’ll come around soon, I know it.” _

_ Entrapta’s frown deepens. “Remember what I told you, okay? The room. The code.” _

_ “I will,” Scorpia lies. She’s definitely going to forget. She feels bad even having this conversation. “But what would I even do, if I went? I’ve seen it before. It doesn’t react to me.” _

_ Entrapta thinks for a moment, then her eyebrows raise up behind her bangs. Scorpia thinks her eyes might have even begun to twinkle for a second. “I don’t know.” Her wide grin returns. “I don’t know! But you should find out. You’re the only one who can.” _

The memory fades. Scorpia rolls over in bed. _ Yeah, right _ . A few minutes later, she’s fast asleep, snoring.

————

The next day, Scorpia is patrolling her usual routes. At least she thinks she is. No one’s updated her and she doesn’t seem to find anyone on the routes, but uh. It’s something. She’s gonna make sure these hallways are safe from any possible threat. 

She’s patrolling near the prison when she sees them - Lonnie and Kyle. They’re headed somewhere fast. She jogs to catch up.

“Hey! Lonnie! Kyle! Whoa, you guys are walking fast,” Scorpia says when she finally catches up. Lonnie’s eyes look pointedly to the right, and Kyle’s gaze drops to the floor. Neither of them speak. “Hey, Lonnie, is that a Force Captain badge? Congratulations! I always thought you were smart enough to be a leader. That’s amazing!”

The corners of Lonnie’s mouth droop, but she says nothing. There’s a beat of awkward silence. 

“Catra says we aren’t supposed to talk to you,” Kyle whispers, glancing around. 

“Catra? Really? So she’s talked about me?” 

Lonnie shoots Kyle a look - she knows he’s breaking the rules and about to get them both in trouble. Kyle just sighs. “Scorpia, come on - take a look around. Can’t you see what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“Catra doesn’t care about you. She had your Force Captain badge taken away. She doesn’t talk to you, and she ordered everyone else to ignore you as well. The only reason you’re still in the Horde is because without Shadow Weaver and Entrapta, Hordak is using you as his plan Z to unlock the Black Garnet.”

“That’s not - I’m sure Hordak is just, you know, ordering Catra around again. I know she’s mad at me, but she’ll get over it if I just give her some space.”

Kyle shakes his head. “You really aren’t getting it, huh? Catra tried to order you to Beast Island. Hordak shot her plan down. She doesn’t want you here.”

Scorpia’s brows furrow, her intuition fighting against what her mind is beginning to understand. “But. We...we have matching jackets.”

“Not anymore. She’s got matching jackets with that new recruit - Double Trouble? They go with her on all her missions, too.”

“Kyle, we have to go, now,” Lonnie hisses, grabbing him by the elbow. Before Scorpia can process what’s happening, they’re gone, and she’s alone again. 

“He must have been lying,” Scorpia says to herself, aloud. “Catra wouldn’t do that. She needs me! I know she does.”

Entrapta’s voice cuts across her mind.

_ When’s the last time Catra talked to you? _

Then Kyle’s, quick after.

_ Catra doesn’t care about you. She doesn’t want you here. _

They’re wrong, of course they are, they have to be. Scorpia has followed Catra everywhere, she had her back when no one else did, she’s risked everything to make sure she was safe, given up blankets and sleep and so many long hours hunting for Adora. Why wouldn’t she want her around?  _ Because you’re too big. Too clumsy. Not pretty enough. A bad Force Captain. _

“Shut up,” Scorpia says, closing her eyes. That’s not true. “I am brave, strong, I give great hugs, and I’m loyal. That’s who I am.”

That usually works. Not this time, though. This time Entrapta’s voice coupled with Kyle’s is louder than her own. She can’t ignore it, and can’t ignore the budding seed of doubt that’s lodged itself painfully within her chest. She’s too focused on how she can feel it splintering that she doesn’t realize where she’s headed until she’s already there.

It’s Hordak’s lab. Where Entrapta says he’s moved the Black Garnet. She’d just have to go through that door, make a left at the end of the corridor, and override the security system. Entrapta told her it wouldn’t be hard. She could do it now. No one is even around. She stares at the door, the weight inside her chest heavy. 

After a long moment, she huffs a hard breath through her nose. “No. I can’t. I need to stay here.”

She’s about to turn around when the doors open, and Catra and Double Trouble step out. They’re mid-conversation when Catra sees Scorpia, and stops. One blue and one yellow eye lock onto her face, eyes slit in a glare. Catra curls her lip, showing the slightest hint of teeth. They are wearing matching jackets. 

Scorpia really can’t help it, but she smiles. Her chest feels lighter already. She hasn’t seen Catra in a long time. “Oh. Hello, Wildcat. It’s been a while. I like your new outfit.”

“So you must be Scorpia,” Double Trouble interjects. They take a long look at her from head to toe. Then, they begin to shape shift. When the form solidifies, Double Trouble has mimicked Scorpia nearly exactly, their face the only giveaway. The Double Trouble Scorpia turns to Catra with a grin. “Hello, Wildcat.”

Catra rolls her eyes and steps to the side to walk around Scorpia and her double. Double Trouble changes back in a flash, following Catra. 

“Hey, Catra. Wait! Wait.”

Catra doesn’t stop. In fact, she seems to start walking faster. 

“Is it true?” Scorpia calls, not bothering to try to follow. “Did you really want me sent away?”

Nobody answers her. She shouldn’t be surprised, but that splinter in her chest seems to be splitting open all the same. She can feel tears burn her eyes, but she shuts them tightly and blinks them away. 

“I’m sure it’s okay,” Scorpia says to herself, her normally boisterous voice strangely quiet. “She’ll come around. I know she misses me.”

Still, as she speaks, she begins to walk through the doors of the lab.

“I’m sure she’s not having as much fun without me.”

She walks down the corridor and makes a left. She’s facing a faintly glowing room, security cameras casting light from floor to ceiling. 

“She’d definitely miss me if I wasn’t here.”

She opens the door and approaches the keyboard. She taps a series of keys, then enters Entrapta’s code. Whatever she expects to see, it isn’t this. 

Entrapta’s smiling face appears on every single screen. 

“Scorpia! You made it. I’m so proud of you. Hey - listen to me, this is CRITICALLY important. I told you this would get you to the Black Garnet, and that’s true. All you have to do is go through that door.”

On cue, a door on the opposite side of the room pops open. 

“But. This code does something else, too. I created it specifically for you. I’ve shut down the security cameras, putting them on a loop. Nobody watching will be any wiser. I’ve temporarily disabled my weapons systems and robots. I’m giving you ten minutes, okay? This is your chance to leave. Get in, connect to the Black Garnet - and get out. Please. If you back out now, they’ll do something worse than before.

Go, Scorpia. Save yourself. You have 8 minutes and 38 seconds. Go!”

Scorpia runs through the open door and comes face to face with the Black Garnet. It’s huge. She’s always thought it was huge, especially as a child in the Horde. It seemed to envelope her, it’s reddish hue turning her skin and hair pink in the glow. 

It’s the same now. She approaches it with caution, unsure of what to do or how to act. She’s going to run out of time, here, in the last place she should ever be found. 

“Hey,” she says, softly. “I don’t know if you know this, but you’re supposed to belong to my family.”

She touches a single claw to the side of the runestone. She keeps talking as she walks, circling the Black Garnet. “You were supposed to be mine, and make me a Princess, or whatever. But my family gave you up. And Shadow Weaver had you, for a long time.”

She places another claw on the stone and stands still. “Whatever that was - whatever magic Shadow Weaver had, I don’t want that. All she ever did was hurt people. Catra. Adora. Me. All of the Princesses. An endless list.” She squeezes her eyes shut again, then forces them to stare into the stone directly. “I don’t want that, okay? I don’t want it. If that’s what you’re going to offer me, if that’s what you’re going to make me do, just keep your magic. I want. I want to help people.”

As soon as she finishes saying that, she feels a jolt push her backwards. She raises her claws in front of her face and closes her eyes on instinct. When she opens them again, everything seems cast in the hue of the Black Garnet. It shouldn’t be possible, but everywhere she looks, it’s the same. 

“How?” She blinks, shakes her head, but the red remains. 

It swirls around her, like sand, and soon the sand begins to take shape. It’s Catra.

“Hey, Scorpia,” she says, then flashes a menacing smile. 

“Catra? Why are you here?”

“Because you’re obsessed with me. Honestly, it’s kind of pathetic.” Catra laughs, and her grin becomes even more unhinged. She begins to circle Scorpia, slowly, like she’s taking her time hunting her prey. 

“You don’t mean that,” Scorpia says, turning, trying to follow Catra as she moves. 

“Don’t I?” 

Then Catra pounces, attaching herself to Scorpia’s back. Scorpia makes no effort to push her off, standing still in the center of this room. 

“That’s your problem, Scorpia,” Catra hisses, mouth close to her ear. “You’re too...soft. You can never just do what needs to be done.” Catra grabs Scorpia’s chin, rough, and pulls it up to expose her neck. She raises a hand, claws poised to attack. “I can, though. I learned the hard way.”

Catra’s claws connect with Scorpia’s throat. She feels the tear but doesn’t register the pain. Not when it feels like that splinter in her chest has ripped open and torn her apart from the inside. She gasps, a claw raising to the side of her neck. 

Catra pushes off Scorpia’s back, and lands in a crouch behind her. When Scorpia turns, Catra attacks again, running toward her and pinning her against the wall. 

“So strong, yet so useless,” Catra spits, holding Scorpia’s clawed arms against her side. “You know what you could do, if you stopped being such a coward? Always so loyal,” Catra laughs, her eyes narrowing. She raises another hand and brings it down across Scorpia’s face, leaving four jagged scratches in its wake. Scorpia simply stares at her. 

“Oh, I forgot,” Catra says, taking a step back. “You don’t care about the pain. What hurts you most is right here.” Catra’s nails tap lightly over where Scorpia’s rapidly thudding heart is. “You want the truth? You were never good enough for me. God, how could you ever think you were? You aren’t even half as interesting as Adora, and I tried to kill her, too.”

Scorpia blinks, slowly, still holding her neck. She shakes her head.

“Still? Even now? You’re so stupid, Scorpia. Oblivious to what everyone knows is true. I never liked you. I was using you. You were nothing but a replacement for someone better. I did order you to Beast Island, you know? Too bad Hordak thought we could get some kind of use out of you. He was wrong, of course.”

Scorpia squeezes her eyes closed, and does not open them again. 

“The Crimson Waste meant nothing to me. You thought I was happy? I could never be happy with you.”

Scorpia takes a ragged breath. She starts to speak, slowly. 

“Catra.” Her voice has an unfamiliar rasp now. She opens her eyes, and takes a limping step forward. “Catra, it’s okay.”

“What do you mean, it’s okay? You never listen! Have you heard anything I said?”

In a movement quicker than she thought she was capable of, Scorpia grabs Catra from behind, and lays her claws across her chest. Like this, Catra can’t attack, but Scorpia knows it’s also a sort of embrace.

“I’ve heard everything,” Scorpia says. “I know you want to hurt me. You want to hurt the world. You’re so full of hurt that you’re willing to take it out on everything, hoping that it will make you feel better.” She squeezes Catra in her claws a little tighter. “You were never second best to Adora. You never deserved to be treated like that by Shadow Weaver. You’re capable of doing great things, and not all of them have to be destructive.”

“Shut up,” Catra’s voice cuts across Scorpia’s as she keeps talking. 

“No, I won’t. I know you want to be tough, so no one ever mistakes you for being weak again. I know you push everyone away when you feel cornered, because you’re scared of becoming attached to someone and having them leave you alone again. I know you say things you don’t mean. And I know you regret some of the things you’ve done.”

“I don’t,” Catra says, struggling against Scorpia’s hold. She turns her head and tries to bite through the armor of her claw.

“It’s okay. You do. I know and you didn’t even have to tell me, see? I told you it’s okay. And I told you I would never abandon you. I meant it. I never will. No matter what you might think. I’ll come back. I’ll always come back. You do need me. To help. To...heal.”

It could be her neck wound, but she feels a few wet drops on her arm, and thinks Catra might be crying. 

The reddish glow seems to snap and explode around Scorpia. The cuts on her neck and throat vanish. Catra fades to dust. The splinters in her chest are gone. When the world is normal again, Scorpia is kneeling on the floor. 

She looks down at her claws. “Healing,” Scorpia says, breaking into a grin. “I can heal! I did it!” She jumps to her feet. She has to leave. And quickly. She’s got a friend on a dangerous island who could probably use her help. But first, there’s something else she has to do.

She returns to the room of monitors, and taps a few keys. A message. It appears on all the screens, waiting to be read.

_ Wildcat - _

_ I’ll be back for you. I promise. _


End file.
